CBI registers case in Sadiq Jamal encounter

Ahmedabad: The Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) has registered a case relating to alleged
fake encounter of Sadiq Jamal Mehtar in 2003 by Gujarat police, an official statement on the agency` website said.

The case was registered by the Central agency
yesterday on the directions of the Gujarat High Court.

"The CBI has registered a case relating to the killing
of Sadiq Jamal Mehtar in an alleged police encounter by the
Gujarat Police, on the directions of High Court of Gujarat in
Special Criminal Application no.963/2007, filed by the brother
of deceased," the CBI statement said.

"A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been
constituted by CBI under a Joint Director and investigation is
continuing," the statement added.

The case has been registered against police officials
of Gujarat and Maharashtra and others.

On June 16, High Court judge Justice MR Shah had
ordered CBI investigation into the Sadiq Jamal encounter with
which certain high ranking police officers were associated,
including suspended IPS officer DG Vanzara, one of the key
accused in Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

Sadiq was killed in a police encounter by city crime
branch officials near Galaxy cinema in Naroda area of the city
on January 13, 2003.

After the encounter, crime branch had claimed that
they had intelligence inputs that Sadiq was a noted criminal
in the league of dons like Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel
and had planned to kill BJP leader LK Advani, Chief Minister
Narendra Modi and VHP leader Pravin Togadia.

This is the third police encounter which has been
declared as fake and its probe transfered to CBI.

The other two cases include 2005 encounter of
Sohrabuddin Shiekh and killing of his wife Kausarbi and
killing of Sheikh`s close aide Tulsiram Prajapati in a similar
police encounter in 2006.

While transferring the probe to CBI, Gujarat High
Court had asked the Central agency to take up investigation
into the case and complete the probe preferably within six
months.

The city crime branch had registered an FIR in the
case against police officials of Gujarat and Maharashtra and
others on June 21 and sent the copy to CBI.

Sadiq`s brother Shabbir in his petition in HC had
claimed that killing of his brother was a `cold-blooded
murder` and a `conspiracy` hatched by Vanzara and IPS officer
PP Pande who was heading the city Crime Branch in 2003.

The court found Shabbir`s apprehension that his
brother Sadiq was killed by high ranking Gujarat police
officers in a fake police encounter `reasonable`, considering
that probe was on against police officers in three other fake
encounter cases.